I am addressing the Elks 1168
with this letter to show the members of the Elks that my
thoughts and deeds are forthright and that I believe
transparency of a person’s intentions are best. In fact I
believe that the only honest relationships and social-political
or most effective charitable ventures are most possible only
when all people and parties operate always with good intentions
and absolute transparency.

I want to be open and
transparent to both my fellow members at the Elks, the trustees
and all of the other officers of the Elks and the women’s
auxiliary – and the entire membership.

I want to be open and
transparent with the public I wish to serve… especially the
various charities and people I hope to help: And I have found
that it is especially important to be forthright and transparent
with the public – most of whom are not members of any fraternal
organization.

This Philosophy of
Transparency is crucial with regard to enlisting the media
to help us best to help each other and let us not forget
legislators, law enforcement agencies and Judicial branches that
are needed to oversee all of us to make sure that everything we
do is forthright, transparent and legal.

In fact they should be openly
invited by us do look over our activities and openly and
proactively advise us on how best to approach our personal and
mutual agendas – which is of course is to uplift mankind by
creating healthy and sustainable communities and helping each
other towards spiritual evolution.

This of course is best
accomplished by helping each other to adopt thoughtful,
congruent and well-outlined family values and solid congruent
spiritual grounding – along with each citizen having a love for
God and their nation.

All of this must be done with
openness, love and tolerance of each other’s viewpoints.

As some of you know – I belong
and support more than a handful of fraternal organizations,
community groups, churches, unions as well as other
social-political organizations.

I am certainly more attracted
to people and organizations that will allow me to be of the most
benefit to my community by both helping them with their projects
and then given in return moral support for my charitable
projects and the methods with which I use to help facilitate
money and moral support for our communities.

For this to occur in an
optimal manner requires openness and transparency from each of
us at all levels.

This means that if a person or
persons have questions about someone(s) methods or motivations –
that person deserves the right to be confronted and questioned
in a forthright manner – to their face – openly and publicly.

This public forum must also be
presented openly to the public outside of the lodge.

Why should we do this you may
ask?

Because we are an integral
part of the communities that we serve and everything we do –
even discussing business in the backroom of a lodge – ultimately
has short and long term effects on the world outside the lodge.

In conclusion, I want to share
with all of my brothers and sisters of the organizations I
belong that I have been working hard for the past ten years
toward certain goals of serving my country. I have not worked
towards this part time, but in fact, I have worked towards these
goals every waking moment since I first began.

A few years ago, I had
originally wanted to sell my house so that my realtor and I
could give a sizable portion of the proceeds for a body armor
fund for our troops in Iraq. I wanted to use the rest of the
money to attend to my financial situation and to use the rest of
the money to facilitate my projects that I have been working on
so that I can become more effective with my social, political
and philanthropic agendas.

Unfortunately, the market has
dropped so much that when I sell the house (If I sell it) I will
not have enough funds to give directly to our troops coming back
from Iraq and Afghanistan, but hopefully the funds that the
house might bring will still help me to facilitate my project
with which to help the people and organizations that need help.

At this present time, I am also looking at the possibility of
working with Interfaith Cervis – an organization that works hard
at getting our injured troops re-established into our community,
by finding them affordable shelter and caretakers to insure that
they are given proper medication and medical attendance when
needed.

I will also be starting a
thirty-day walk across Oregon at the end of this month to raise
money for the troops and to encourage people to join fraternal
organizations best suited for them. Lets face it, our fraternal
organizations desperately need an influx of members, especially
the younger generations; and the younger generation needs the
fraternal organizations for guidance and support. I have many
ideas of which I have discussed with people in the community,
both young and old as to what would make fraternal organizations
attractive enough for them to join.

(I would like the chance of
addressing this with officers of any fraternal organizations at
a later date).

I will start at the
California-Oregon border on the coast and walk north until I hit
Astoria and then I will head east. I hope to cover at least
thirty miles a day.

I have a support vehicle – a
converted ambulance of which many of you have seen. I will be
living in this vehicle during the month. I will be looking for a
few people to help support this venture… one person in a vehicle
that will drive me back to the spot I last left off walking and
another to sit with my vehicle to insure its safety.

It is likely that I will have
the support of many active duty and past duty veterans that my
walk with me at intervals and rally with me (as well as many
people from various groups) as I travel from town to town. It is
at these towns that I hope to meet with my brothers and sisters
of the various organizations of which I belong and I am hoping
for their support both personally and publicly – after all, it
is for a good cause.

I want to emphasize that the
money I want to raise will not be collected by directly by me,
but instead I want people and organizations to make pledges of
how much money the will give to Interfaith – Cervis or they are
encouraged to give the money to their favorite veterans support
group. I would like them to send the money directly to such
organization(s). I don’t want to personally receive or handle
any money that is pledge to go to the troops or any charity.

I am looking at other methods
of generating funds that go directly to Interfaith and other
charities instead of passing through anyone hands.

The only money that I may
accept are donations for fuel and for such things that my
support vehicle may need. With regards to these needs, I hope to
generate the funds from selling some workout pamphlets that I
have designed and from money given when people play against me
on my ping-pong table that I will bring along on this venture.

It is my hope that many people
in the Elks organization locally and Nationally will lend their
support and by walking with us, by partaking in ping-pong, by
donating money for fuel or creating methods to raise money for
our fuel, by getting on the internet and contacting other elk
members and club in the towns that I will be heading towards,
contacting veterans in your area, contacting church groups,
contacting radio stations, TV News stations and new papers in
each area and by contacting other people on other internet
communities such as MySpace, et cetera.

I want all of us to show our
Veterans, their families, our nation and ultimately the world
community what it means when Americans really organize and pull
together… from the individual on up.

Does all of this sound worthy?

Most people I talk to in the
community think so and most of them would find fraternal
organizations more exciting and attractive if they prove to be
dynamic enough for this venture.

In parting, I want to once
again bring up the potentiality of a member of a fraternal
organization not fully understanding what I am hoping to
accomplish and they may feel that my motivation, character and
values are in question.

I want to be clear that I
would never want a person or organization to bite their tongue
or keep their true feelings to themselves as a quid pro quo
compromise in return for me bringing a positive light on the
Elks.

I think that the Elks can
promote this cause and still publicly confront me on any and
every issue.

After all, an open public
debate on differences is healthy and necessary to foster trust
and cooperation and most of all this type of loving and public
openness is the most American and Christian approach when people
have differences. Only in this manner can we voice our opinions
and get things done for the betterment of mankind.

Also… It is only fair that
people are confronted, because after all, we can be in error…
myself included and this is the best way to find out if we are
or not.

I hope that this long letter
clarifies what I am about and what I hope to accomplish. I
thought it better to write this lengthy letter… because in the
past one page letters are too vague for something of such a
large scope and I felt it would be a better utilization of time
– over time to approach the Elks in this manner.

I pray for the help of my
brothers and sisters at this lodge,

Sincerely,

Vince Faini

P.S. – Included are signatures
of a few people who are not fraternal members, but are excited
about joining an organization that would share this vision.